Thursday, 22 October 2015

October Blog - Top Quartile GCSE Results!

It’s hard to believe that we are at the end of October and at the half term break already. It’s been an exhausting term for many of you I know but also a productive start to the academic year. We have a great deal to celebrate in the city and have made a good start on tackling those priority areas we all know need improvement. Like many of you I'm taking some time off at half term with the family travelling up North, and am looking forward to the usual Halloween fun!

GCSE results


I am delighted that following the GCSE and IB statistical release this month Brighton & Hove (B&H) are above the national state funded schools average, south east average, and our statistical neighbour average, and West Sussex and East Sussex in 5+ A*-C including English and maths GCSE. B&H is 3.4 percentage points above national, this is the highest position relative to the national results on record. In 2012/13 when B&H was above national it was by 1.4 percentage points.

I’d like to congratulate and thank secondary schools for their significant contributions they have made and the Secondary School Partnership for the work done to provide that important school to school support and challenge. Also my Local Authority (LA) team who have provided ongoing support and challenge at individual school level and across the city.

The collaborative approach we have in B&H with a family of schools and the LA working in partnership is making a real difference. I am looking forward to being involved in continued partnership work going forward to close the gap in achievement for our vulnerable groups, one of our top priorities for the city this year.

School Games Mark for 2014/15


The School Games Mark was established as a way to acknowledge schools work and commitment to sport and PE.  Schools can gain bronze, silver or gold marks for their efforts. This month we were able to celebrate the fact that during the 2014-15 academic year, 38 schools in B&H achieved a bronze, silver or gold mark, which is a significant increase from the 29 schools in the previous year! I’d like to congratulate the 6 Gold Mark Schools; Balfour Primary, Carden Primary, Coldean Primary, Elm Grove Primary, Middle Street Primary & Westdene Primary. A more formal celebration for all of the schools who achieved the mark is being planned for December 2015. More information about the School Games Mark can be found on its website.

PACA receiving their award last year

The Argus Community Stars Awards – Susie Haworth on the shortlist


Susie Haworth
I am so pleased to announce that Susie Haworth, B&H City Council’s Schools Meals Manager, has been nominated for an Argus Community Star Award!  Susie has been nominated in the Employee of the Year category for her work on Free School Meals. Further details about the awards can be seen on the Brighton Argus website. Good luck Susie, we hope you win!





Holocaust Education Project


A heads up that next month a B&H Holocaust Education Project will be launched which a number of schools in the area that will be involved in. The project will encourage schools and children to collect Lego pieces until the 11 December 2015. Lego will be significant as each dot on the bricks will represent a person and the different sized brick will represent families. The collected Lego will then form part of an exhibition at the Jubilee Library and there will be a Holocaust Memorial Day event in the New Year. Many thanks to Paul Harrington from Carden Primary School who is leading this innovative project. We look forward to hearing more.










Ofsted have been in the city this month inspecting St Mark's CofE Primary School and St John the Baptist Catholic School and I look forward to receiving the reports and final judgement.

School Visits


I am working hard to get round to visit all new headteachers at their schools. I had an extremely positive visit to Hove Park this month to meet with Rob Niedermaier-Reed and his Chair of Governors, Mike Nicholls. It was good to hear his vision for the school and his clear focus on important priorities. We were able to discuss positive approaches to close the gap in achievement for vulnerable groups, improve progress for all, and effective use of the pupil premium. It was also refreshing to hear how quickly Rob has developed links with his secondary colleagues and is working collaboratively with primary schools in the area. I know Hove Park will go from strength to strength under his leadership.


It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to visit St Paul's Primary school in central Brighton this week. I observed Linda Dupret the Headteacher leading a fun and enjoyable school assembly. Some of the youngest children in the school performed a couple of fabulous Halloween pieces in front of the whole school singing and dancing with joy. It was a delight to watch and see how confident the children were and how much pleasure they got from being able to perform in front of all the children, staff and parents. I was also impressed with the behaviour and engagement of those children watching and the pride on their faces seeing their friends and class mates succeed. Thank you St Paul's.

Sound City Board


This month I attended the Sound City Board, which oversees the work of our Music Education Hub. The meeting focus on 2 keys area's the future governance arrangement for the Music & Arts service exploring the service moving to becoming part of the Brighton Dome and Festival and developing further the range of provision that is needs led and supports all the cities young people to develop their creative talents. I was pleased to read the positive evaluation report on the Breaking the Bubble Conference that took place before the summer, which focused on developing music provision for young people with SEND bringing together teachers and music leaders from across Brighton & Hove, Surrey and Kent. The team are now planning another conference for next summer and will be launching new music ensemble provision after Christmas - watch this space for more news!

Children’s Services Roadshow


It’s the time of year when staff in the council comes together for the roadshows. Much of this week I have been with Pinaki and my colleagues presenting at these events and discussing a wide range of children's services issues: budget, child friendly city, community collaboration and partnership amongst other things. It’s also been an opportunity to hear from colleagues the best practice that is going on across the city to improve outcomes for our children and young people. I was particularly impressed with staff energy and commitment at a time when we are all facing service challenges and budget pressures.
 
Pinaki Ghoshal presents to staff

Area review post 16


On 24th September 2015 DfE and Department for Business, Information & Skills (BIS) announced an area review for the Sussex Coast area including the LA areas of East Sussex, parts of West Sussex and Brighton and Hove. This review will look at the shape of all post-16 education and training across the area and how well this fits with local economic and educational need. The government has said the reviews were “designed to achieve a transition towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers, and more effective collaboration across institution types”. The review will last approximately 4 months and will be focused on 11 6th form and FE colleges across the region, including City College, BHASVIC and Varndean College, in B&H.

The Children, Young People and Skills Committee met on the 12 October and discussed and welcomed the review. They also agreed that in B&H they felt strongly that our School sixth forms should also be considered as part of the review.

Rachel Carter (Post 16 learning and partnership adviser) and I are attending a briefing on the review later this week and will be able to update colleagues as the review develops.

Headteachers and Senior Leaders Conference; Inspirational Leadership


It was good to see so many of you at the school and college leaders conference on 2 October. I have had such positive feedback the conference and about Tim Brighouse’s and David Cameron’s presentations. I feel that they included many of the challenges and the joys of leadership. I have said that we will look together at what some of the ‘unbreakable plates’ might be. In my team we have also been thinking also about the ‘butterflies’: those small actions which can have huge impact.

The Succession Planning Group is already thinking about a conference for next year and would welcome thoughts, ideas and themes! Please contact me or HilaryFerries with ideas.
 
David Cameron at the conference

School Organisation


This month has seen further steps being taken in our work on school organisation. The Children, Young People and Skills Committee received the report from the independent review of our school place forecasting and recognised the good work undertaken by the LA team in accurately forecasting pupil numbers and accepted that there was clearly a need for additional secondary school places in the city.

Richard Barker (Head of School Organisation) and I also joined the Secondary Admissions Review Steering Group this week to further consider potential options for admissions in September 2018 which we hope to go to consultation in the spring.

We also met with the Portslade Partnership of Schools and Councillors, hosted at Benfield Primary School, to discuss their local situation and to explore proposals for the future. It was a productive meeting that reflected the work the schools in the partnership had already undertaken and future meetings are planned.

Work is beginning on the next iteration of the Council’s School Organisation Plan and a framework approach is being considered. Watch this space for more information.

Feeling Good, Feeling Safe


This term sees the launch of the Feeling Good, Feeling Safe resource for primary schools which has been developed through a partnership with the Council, Safety Net and some B&H primary schools. The aim of the resource is to support all children to learn the skills they need to stay safe and to get help when they need it.  This programme is highly recommended to support schools in their safeguarding responsibilities and has had positive feedback from pilot schools. The resource has been or will be sent to all primary headteachers and is available on the pier2pier website. To request training in delivering the lessons please email pshe@brighton-hove.gov.uk and for whole school approach to protective behaviours training email Terri Fletcher.

Secondary Governance


Hilary Ferries (Head of Standards and Achievement) and I joined our secondary and special schools chairs of governors this week to have a strategic debate about governors role in school improvement. The event was hosted at the Newman Sixth Form College and chaired by Dominca De Rosa (Chair of Governors at Cardinal Newman). Throughout the evening we had the opportunity to discuss 14/15 secondary results and data across the city with a particular focus on disadvantaged groups.The group also shared and discussed feedback from other partnerships they participate in and the implications for governors. Peter Freeman (Chair of BHASVIC) led a interesting discussion on the post 16 area review.


Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons, I'd urge you all to set up accounts for your schools if you don't already have one.

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